“Hi,” Lexi said cheerily. Molly and Emma smiled.

“Tilly is fine when we’re in the boarding house,” Tilly said.

The girls chorused their hellos.

“This is Emma,” Kate introduced. She’s our star athlete. You’ll rarely see her here,” Kate joked. “Em’s always off at one state championship or another. And this is Molly. She’s our prodigy. She’s going to Edinburgh for a writing workshop at the end of December. One of just two Australians picked.”

Molly dropped her gaze to the bowl of grapes, her cheeks colouring.

“That’s incredible,” Tilly said.

As housemother, Kate wasn’t supposed to have her favourites—but they weren’t her children, so she could be excused. She tried not to let it show, but she favoured Molly and Emma above the rest. They were mature, down-to-earth and free from the usual teenage angst. It disappointed her that Molly and Emma didn’t seem all that close. Perhaps without Grace and Lexi around, things would have been different.

“And I’m Lexi.” Lexi reached into the bowl of grapes and popped one into her mouth. “Not the prodigy, not the athlete—the other one.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Lexi isn’t one of our VCE Literature girls, she’s in Year Ten,” Kate explained. “But you’ll have her for History and Religion. And if you’re lucky, Til, you may catch her at the piano. Lexi’s very gifted.”

Tilly smiled. “And is that what you want to do when you finish school, Lexi? Music?”

“Oh, no. I’m going to work in public relations.”

“She wants to be a wedding planner,” Kate explained.

“Are you very organised?” Tilly asked.

Molly and Emma snickered. “No,” Lexi said, “I just read a lot of Vogue.”

“Maybe Tilly will hire you,” Sister Ellie said from the counter where she was slicing chicken fillets into strips for that night’s stir-fry. “She recently got engaged.”

Inappropriate, Kate thought.

Lexi popped another grape into her mouth. “Really? Can I see your ring?”

Tilly smiled as she extended her arm to Lexi.

“Woah, that’s so fancy,” Lexi said as she grasped Tilly’s hand, turning it in her own as she appraised the sapphire. For the first time since Tilly’s arrival, Kate looked at it properly. She couldn’t see very well over Tilly’s arm, but it certainly wasn’t modern. The claws were too large and the band was marked with a vintage pattern. A family heirloom, perhaps.

“She’s engaged to Vicar Armstrong,” Sister Ellie said from the sink.

Lexi sank into a chair between the others. “The new vicar at St. Vincent’s? But he’s like sixty?”

Molly and Emma stiffened. Kate’s eyes widened as she glared at Lexi.

“He’s really hot in like a George Clooney way, though,” Lexi added. “And I bet if you dyed his hair he’d look like only five years older than you at most—”

“Tilly, shall we get on?” Kate interjected.

In the small office reserved for the housemother, Kate reached for the broom beside her filing cabinet and banged the handle on the ceiling. Seconds later, the volume of the music lowered to a faint hum. “They’re good girls,” Kate assured Tilly as she gestured for her to take a seat at the desk that was far too large for such a small office. “And, by coincidence, Molly, Emma, and our other senior boarder, Grace, are the only girls who chose to take VCE Literature Extension.”